B.C. Education Minister Peter Fassbender is dismissing comments by former B.C. Public School Employers’ Association chair Melanie Joy regarding negotiations with teachers in 2012.Ben Nelms/The Globe and Mail
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The B.C. government has backed away from its demand for a 10-year teachers' contract.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender says the government will be offering a six-year agreement in hopes of negotiating a deal with the B.C. Teachers' Federation by the end of the school year.
In order to meet that timeline, Fassbender says the province is also offering a signing bonus but he wouldn't give specifics.
Details of the latest government offer will be revealed after its chief negotiator, Peter Cameron, makes the presentation to union officials Friday.
The union has said the proposed 10-year deal was one of the key sticking points in reaching a contract agreement.
After voting 89 per cent in favour of a strike in March, the union is in its first phase of job action, which includes refusing to supervise students outside class or communicate in writing with administrators.